EconomicPolicyJournal.com

The Richest Zip Codes in the United States

2012-02-26T16:03:00.000-05:00

Of 29,000 zip codes examined by the Internal Revenue Service, only three had an average yearly income of one million dollars or more, based on recently released data from 2008. But the average income per year for all of the top ten richest zip codes exceeds $700,000, according to IRS data, reports HuffPo. Three of the wealthiest five zip codes are located in New York City. Among its residents,

Make Up Your Own Mind about Ron Paul

2012-02-26T15:13:00.000-05:00

Blast Injures U.S. Soldiers as Riots Rage in Afghanistan

2012-02-26T14:06:00.000-05:00

It appears there is no safe place for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. NYT reports: A grenade thrown by Afghan protesters wounded at least six American service members in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said... The injuries to American service members on Sunday were inflicted after protesters threw a grenade at a camp in the northern city of Kunduz, where the American military has a

Exposed: Romney is a Closet Keynesian

2012-02-26T13:03:00.000-05:00

None other than major league Keynesian Paul Krugman exposes Mitt Romney for the Keynesian he is. Krugman writes: According to Michael Kinsley, a gaffe is when a politician accidently tells the truth. That's certainly what happened to Mitt Romney on Tuesday, when in a rare moment of candor -- and, in his case, such moments are really, really rare -- he gave away the game. Speaking in Michigan,

Citi Banksters Abandoning Obama

2012-02-26T12:30:00.003-05:00

The uneasy alliance between President Obama and the banksters is ripping big time at Citigroup. A key Citigroup player is aggressively hustling his fellow Citi employees to contribute to the Mitt Romney campaign. This is a major turn at Citi. Former-OMB director under Obama has hung his hat at Citi and Citi has always been Obama country. But, most see Orszag as a lightweight opportunist and some

Your Email Account Has Been Deactivated

2012-02-26T09:16:00.000-05:00

Sovereign Man writes: Imagine waking up one day only to find out that your email account has been deactivated and the contents seized by some alphabet soup government organization. That's exactly what happened to one unsuspecting Gmail™ user not long ago. At the order of a judge, Google® was required to deactivate the user's account and disclose certain private details to the court Did the

Gasoline Prices Climb for 18th Day in a Row

2012-02-25T15:49:00.000-05:00

The price of unleaded gasoline inched higher again overnight, rising 2.7 cents to a nationwide average of $3.67 a gallon on Saturday, according to the motorist group AAA. That's almost a 30-cent increase from a month ago when the nationwide average was $3.38 a gallon. Average prices for regular gasoline are more than $4 a gallon in California, Alaska and Hawaii, and are just shy of the $4 mark

Are You a Young Failure?

2012-02-25T14:33:00.000-05:00

Are you young, but have not yet founded your multi-billion dollar business? It turns out you may not be a failure, just yet. Economist magazine reports: It is time to do for enterprise what such ageing rockers have done for pop music: explode the myth that it is a monopoly of the young. This idea has been powerfully reinforced by the latest tech boom: Facebook, Google and Groupon were all

The Coming Conflict between Those who Produce and Those who Take

2012-02-25T13:29:00.000-05:00

The conflict is coming to America, as a result of too much taxation and too much giveaways. Pat Buchanan explains: The family, cinder block of society, is disintegrating, and along with it, society itself. Writes [Robert] Rector, "The welfare system is more like a 'safety bog' than a safety net." Heritage scholars William Beach and Patrick Tyrrell put Rector's numbers in perspective: "Today

Green on Blue Attack: 2 Americans Killed as Afghan Unrest Enters Fifth Day

2012-02-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

NYT reports: Two American officers were shot dead inside the Interior Ministry building here on Saturday, and NATO responded by immediately pulling all advisers out of Afghan ministries, in a deepening of the crisis over the American military’s burning of Korans at a NATO army base...Although there was no official statement that the shooter was an Afghan, in an e-mail sent to Western officials

A Completely Dumb Attack on Gold From Warren Buffett

2012-02-25T11:57:00.001-05:00

Warren Buffett is out with his annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. He continues his attack on gold. This attack is as dumb and clueless as any I have seen from an oligarch. He writes: The second major category of investments involves assets that will never produce anything, but that are purchased in the buyer’s hope that someone else – who also knows that the assets will be

The Key Thing Poor Countries Should Do

2012-02-24T17:32:00.000-05:00

Peter Moore writes in the comments: In the case of Hong Kong, it also had a Financial Secretary called Sir John Cowperthwaite, a colonial administrator of genius because he did hardly anything to get in the way of life. This from one of a number of educational obituaries about him which can be found online: "Asked what the key thing poor countries should do, Cowperthwaite once remarked, "They

Jim Rogers has a Better Pick for President than Ron Paul

2012-02-24T17:28:00.001-05:00

Asked who he would pick for President, of any person dead or alive, Jim Rogers said, Adam Smith. Boooo. Which means Rogers likely hasn't read Murray Rothbard's take on Smith : Adam Smith (1723–90) is a mystery in a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. The mystery is the enormous and unprecedented gap between Smith's exalted reputation and the reality of his dubious contribution to economic

CFR Analyst: Protests Over Koran Burning May Spread Beyond Afghanistan

2012-02-24T16:12:00.002-05:00

The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is on lockdown as protests rage in multiple Afghan cities over an incident the U.S. says was inadvertent burning of the Koran at a U.S. military base in Afghan. "The Embassy is on lockdown; all travel suspended," the embassy announced earlier this week on its Twitter page. "Please, everyone, be safe out there." The protests sweeping Afghanistan could

Forget the Orient, There are Fortunes to Possibly be Made in Sao Tome, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Gambia or Benin

2012-02-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

A fascinating discussion between Doug Casey and Louis James: Doug: Lobo, you were in Africa – the Congo – last time we talked. How did that go? L: I saw a lot of changes from my previous visit to the DRC in 2006. That brings up an interesting question, as we do invest in companies working in several African countries, and you've described the continent as "a perpetual basket case." What's

Orange County Gas Prices Up 6 Cents Overnight

2012-02-24T13:22:00.001-05:00

As of Friday morning, Orange County. motorists were paying an average price of about $4.24 for a gallon of regular unleaded, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. This is six cents higher than yesterday's price. It's now just a few cents away from the 2011 record of $4.265, which was set on May 6, AAA said. The all-time O.C. record of $4.598 was in June 2008. Motorists are now paying an

Understanding the Clueless Keynesian Data Trackers

2012-02-24T10:47:00.002-05:00

As I have been pointing out for some time, Keynesians and econometricians really have no model of the economy that explains how the economy works, that is, the interactions of an economy. For them they just watch the economy and "forecast" the changes as they occur. For Keynesians, it's about changes in animal spirits, for econometricians it is total data watching minus the animal howls. A

I Hope Bob Murphy Said Something Intelligent Yesterday

2012-02-24T09:17:00.001-05:00

Bob emailed yesterday: So I just did a radio show and in both the intro and the conclusion the host said, "That was economist Robert P. Murphy, from the blog EconomicPolicyJournal.com"

Will Rand Paul Become Mitt Romney's Running Mate?

2012-02-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

At the start of this month, I stated the below and then asked a question: Dr. Paul's delegates will be very important in choosing the Republican nominee. Romney, and the others, will want those delegates desperately. This is why it is more important than ever to keep up the effort to get the Ron Paul votes out. Every additional delegate that Dr. Paul walks into the convention with will make him

West Texas Intermediate Crude: $107.88

2012-02-23T15:41:00.001-05:00

Don't let anyone tell you the spike in oil is just about tensions in the Middle East. The lack of supply from Iran (Thanks to a U.S. financial blockade against Iran) is impacting the price of oil some. But the climb in oil started before the recent escalation in tensions. Bernanke money printing is the primary causal factor. 12-month chart of West Texas Intermediate crude

Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index Soars

2012-02-23T13:28:00.000-05:00

Bernanke's newly printed money has found its way to Kansas City. The composite index measuring manufacturer activity in the Federal Reserve KC district surged to a reading of 13.. Keynesian economic forecasters expected no more than a reading of 9. Production was healthy at 20 versus 13 the month before. The new orders index eased incrementally to 8 from 9 while the backlog index rose to 13

An Econometrician's Solution to Higher Oil Prices: Print More Money

2012-02-23T12:49:00.000-05:00

I am not making this up. Here's Karl Smith's advice to the Fed if oil prices keep climbing: My advice would be to go with something like this [issue a statement saying] Higher oil prices represent headwinds for the US economy and may justify more accommodative action to prevent job growth from slowing omehow, according tp Smith that newly printed Fed money isn't bidding up oil prices (and

Huffington Post: Only Ron Paul Would Stop National Debt Nightmare

2012-02-23T11:45:00.000-05:00

Here's the frontpage of HuffPp right now: From the accompanying WaPo story: The national debt is likely to balloon under tax policies championed by three of the four major Republican candidates for president, according to an independent analysis of tax and spending proposals so far offered by the candidates. The lone exception is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who would pair a big reduction in tax

How Waiters Are Reading You

2012-02-23T11:09:00.000-05:00

WSJ reports that even chain restaurants like Denny's, T.G.I. Friday's, and Romano's Macaroni Grill are focusing more on personalized service by training staff to note body language, eye contact and offhand remarks, hoping to make service feel less mechanical. Traditionally, eateries taught waiters to follow a script and push add-ons like desserts and drinks. Here's what WSJ says waiters are

Rick Santorum's Strange Handshake of Ron Paul

2012-02-23T09:49:00.002-05:00

What the hell was this about?